As such a public figure, his arrest was major television news from the day he was arrested by police in his Ribble Valley constituency in Yorkshire.

He said that many famous people accused of sex offences faced months of hell after their names were made public even if they ultimately never faced any charges.

He said: “I think publicity from the day the police knock on the door, and you go through a year of hell, and then in the end there is going to be no charge, I just think that is a trauma that people should not face.”

He made his call during an appearance on Radio 4’s weekly Any Questions panel radio programme, which was broadcast from the Althorp Literary Festival in Northampton.

Show host Jonathan Dimbleby had earlier introduced him by referring to the trial and commenting: “You look as though you have picked yourself up and dusted yourself down pretty well.”

Speaking later he referred to a call he made in the wake of his trial for the Home Affairs Select Committee to look at the whole question in detail.

He then highlighted the case of the Oxford Union president Ben Sullivan, 21, who was arrested at the beginning of last month on suspicion of rape.

He has since been released on bail pending an on-going police investigation into the allegation.

“Everybody knows what he has been accused of, he has not been charged with anything,” the MP told the audience.

“It might well be at the end of the investigation that he is not. But his life will never, ever be the same again.”

He went on to highlight cases of well known people who were investigated over historic sex allegations where no action was ultimately taken.

“Through the prism of some of the celebrity accusations we have known, from what Jimmy Tarbuck said, a year’s investigation, no charge brought, one year of hell. The same with Jim Davidson, longer than a year.”

“For a number of people who are not celebrities , who are not well known names, they will be going through exactly the same.”

He acknowledged the argument that publicity surrounding the arrest of a named person can bring other alleged victims to contact the police.

“After a police investigation, if there is sufficient evidence and it is decided that a charge is brought, the publicity will come then, and then, if other people come forward, clearly the police will continue their investigation, because the trial does not start the week after a charge is brought.”

He suggested that a person should be given automatic anonymity unless the police could convince a judge that they had good reason for it to be lifted.

George Galloway, who also appeared on Any Questions, backed his call.

He said: “His life was very gravely damaged, his political career was very gravely damaged, by absolutely false allegations made against him by people who remain entirely anonymous, and that cannot be fair.

“I do not support removing anonymity from victims, but there must be an argument for extending anonymity to the accused.

“After all the cases that we have been through, of which Nigel’s is the most close and pressing here around this platform, it cannot be right that Nigel was treated in such a way.”